Notes from the ARCA test at Talladega

(The Birmingham News / Doug Demmons)It has become quite apparent that the five-car team of Venturini Motorsports is ARCA's answer to Hendrick Motorsports.

At Wednesday's final test session at Talladega Superspeedway, when cars were drafting in small packs, the top five speeds of the day belonged to the five Venturini cars which spent a good part of the day drafting with each other.

That doesn't necessarily mean the April ARCA race at Talladega is a lock for a Venturini entry. But the team also led the charts during single-car runs.

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Four of the five Venturini cars are Toyota Camrys. The lone non-Toyota is the No. 15 of Alli Owens. Her car is a Chevy.

So why does she drive a Chevy instead of a Toyota like the rest of the team?

Because her sponsor, the electrical workers union, prefers it that way. The union would rather see her in a car from an American-owned company than Toyota.

Does that put her at any disadvantage? Slightly. She says her Chevy engine pulls a few horsepower less than the Toyotas. That might explain why of the five Venturini cars hers was the slowest on Wednesday.

Nonetheless, I still see Owens winning an ARCA race long before Danica Patrick wins in the Nationwide Series.

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One of the non-Venturini cars that managed to post good times over the two days of testing was the No. 09 Ford of Grant Enfinger.

Enfinger is from Fairhope and runs as many ARCA races as finances will allow. last year he raced in seven races and managed second-place finishes at Kentucky and Chicago and third-place finishes at Talladega and Kansas. Four top fives in seven races ain't too shabby.

This year he is planning to run at least four more races, including Texas and Talladega. His sponsor is Beasley Allen, a law firm out of Montgomery.